I'm the Common Denominator

I realize, of course, that it is totally absurd to think that I have any effect on the weather...but holey moley...it sometimes seems that way to me.  

Here is why:

We moved to Florida in 1999 and according to locals it had been "years and years" since they had anything resembling a hurricane or tropical storm.

Then:

1999

 -September we had a mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Floyd 

-  Tropical Storm Harvey a couple weeks later

- Tropical Storm Irene in October

2000 was calm

2001 - Tropical Storm/Hurricane Gabrielle hit on September 13

2002 - Tropical Storm Edouard 

2003 - Tropical Storm Henri

2004 was a wonderful *sarcasm* year for hurricanes.  

- Charlie was in August...a category 4 that weakened to a 1 by the time it reached us.

-Frances was beginning of September...a category 4 hurricane and we took a direct hit.

-Jeanne was end of September...a category 1 hurricane

If you're keeping track that is 

-5 named hurricanes 

-4 Tropical storms

in 6 years.  

Then I moved to Wisconsin for 10 years (2005-2015) and over that period of time Florida experienced 2 tropical storms!  One in 2007 and one in 2013.  

We have been back in Florida for only 3 months and, what do you know, we are expecting a hurricane/tropical storm on Monday!  

The latest predictions show Tropical Storm Erika making landfall Monday morning on Florida's southwestern coast, near Naples.

The storm is forecasted to then move north-northeast up the center of the state, toward Central Florida.

Did you get that? Right towards Central Florida!

And just a side note:

while we were in Wisconsin we experienced 

- the 2nd coldest winter on record* in 2013-2014

- the 4th snowiest winter on record* in 2008

*records date back to 1886

School Days

Well tomorrow marks the end of the first week of school and Zack has not spent a single second in a classroom!

We have surely spent enough time in the Guidance Office though trying to get him registered.  

I really can't believe it.  The latest hold-up is because Alpha Omega is not faxing his transcripts.  

I understand that registration cannot proceed without them.  And I understand that it is not the fault of Freedom High School.  But what really bothers me is whenever I am in the Guidance Office I feel like just a number to them.  It seems like their overall attitude is, 'that is your problem not ours'. 

 Not one time has anyone there said to me, "let's see if we can't get this straightened out right now."  or "what can I do to help you with this process?"  In fact, I have spent four times as much time waiting for my name to be called as I have actually speaking or interacting with anyone.  The average time of my interaction with anyone there is less than a minute.  

I am supposed to work tomorrow but will now have to call in (and lose that money) so we can go back again tomorrow and try again!!!  

Oi Vey! 

Our Way to Unwind

Last night Zack and I walked over to Sea World.  We only stayed about 1.5 hours but it was time enough to ride Journey to Atlantis, watch the Dolphin feeding, and have a couple kids meals at a restaurant.  

I did not get on Journey to Atlantis because I did not have money (cash) to pay for a locker storage and you cannot bring items on the ride.  Sheesh...lockers are free at Universal.  

These two must have been pretty important to get their own boat

No poncho so he got pretty wet

We walked by the dolphins and they were being fed...soooo cute.

This one came way out of the water for his food

I Couldn't Make This Stuff Up

Today I left my apartment at 9:00 a.m. and got back at 2:00 p.m. and the only thing I managed to get accomplished is picking up Zack's immunization records from "his" school.  

Florida requires your child's vaccination records to be transferred to a form from the state.  Why they do this?  I simply have no idea except that it costs $10.00 to do this so, apparently, they could do it because they want the money.  

In my perfect world I thought I could get that done this morning and take Zack this afternoon to be registered so he could attend school tomorrow.  Ha!  Clearly I am delusional.  

Here is a run down of today's drama:

Freedom High School

9:15 - I arrived at Freedom High School, signed in, picked up a name tag, and went to the Guidance Office where I waited...and waited...and waited.
9:40 - My name is finally called so I stated my business
Me:"I'm here to pick up my son's immunization records."
Lady:"Did you call ahead of time?"
Me: "No"
Lady: "I won't be able to do that today...I'm too busy."

Luckily I had the foresight to determine she thought I was requesting the information from an 'existing' record.

Me: "No, he is not a registered student yet. The record was faxed last week."
Lady:"Oh, all registering is being done in the PAC.  The fax will be there.

Great...

A 5 minute walk and another 15 minute wait...and lo and behold...his record was there.  The only thing that actually went as planned today.  

10:10 - I jump in the car, stop by the bank to cash a check, and set off for Orlando Department of Health.  Here's the thing: there are many listings for the Orlando Department of Health so before I left I googled them, picked the one that said 'deals with student's records' and plugged the address into my garmin.  


10:30 - Arrive at the Orlando Department of Health and drive around 5 minutes looking for a place to park before finally deciding to park in a parking lot across the street.  

10:40 - Arrive at the front desk.  The receptionist is on the phone so I just wait patiently for her to acknowledge me.

Lady: "Hello, can I help you?"

Me: "Hi. I need to have my son's immunization records transferred."

Lady:"We don't do that here."

And then she picks up the phone again and takes her call off hold.  But I refused to move until I received a satisfactory answer from her. After a few minutes she got the clue.

Lady: "You have to take those to the downtown Orlando office"

Me: "And where is that?"

She gives me the address which I quickly write down. 

Me: "thank you"

10:55 - back in the car and plug the new address in the garmin

On the plus side I drove past the Orlando City Soccer Stadium - they are a really huge deal here in Orlando 


11:25 - arrive at the designated health department.  The parking situation is much better.

11:30 - Walk in and am instructed where to go. Another line to wait in.

11:50 - My turn

Lady: "How can I help you?"

Me: "Hi. I need to have my son's immunization records transferred."

Lady: "Okay. Do you have your ID?"

Me: "Yes" Take it out and show it to her

Lady: "Okay. Do you have the child's birth certificate?"

Me: "Uh...no. Is that needed?"

Lady: "Yes. We need the birth certificate.  The original not a copy."


Grrr.....I can't believe this

12:05 - back in my car and a 20 minute drive home. While home I grab a quick snack and take Ollie for a walk. 

1:00 - back in the car and drive back to the designated health department with birth certificate in hand.

1:20 - arrive, park, and get in line all over again.

1:45 - My turn *big sigh*

Me: for the 3rd time today "Hi. I need to have my son's immunization records transferred."

Man: "Sorry, ma'am.  We are done doing that today."

Me: "Say What?"

Man: "We are finished doing that for today."

Me: "What do you mean you're done...you're open for 3 more hours."

Man: "Yes, but we only process 40 of those a day." 

Me:"Excuse me? Seriously? Why do you stop at 40?"

Man: "We only have two people working on those."

Me: "Okay...that doesn't really answer my question. Why do you stop at 40 when you're still open for THREE MORE HOURS???!!!" 

As this news spread and I heard collective groaning behind me, I realized that I was not the only one in this boat.  There were four people behind me waiting for the same thing. 

Me:  "This is madness. One would think you would continue processing these requests ALL DAY! Especially when school has already started and all these kids are already missing their first day and now will be missing their second day too!"  

At this point, if he had a gun, I think he would have used it on me.  

Bring on tomorrow!  

Last Universal of Summer

This summer we made a point of getting to Universal once a week.  C.J. would look at our work schedules and pick a night that we both had the next day off.  Then we would get together, have a fast food dinner, and then head in for some theme park fun for a couple hours....which we did last night.

I was on a mission to try the egg rolls at my work place.  I have never been able to find egg rolls that compare to those at the Chinese pavilion at EPCOT.  We have some amazing Asian food at the Comic Strip all cooked by a nice old Chinese lady so I thought I'd give it a try. And...oh my...YUM!  And this reusable cup is a must have if you are a frequent visitor to the park. $9.99 investment for the cup itself and then $1.06 (with tax) for every refill - forever! 

While I pigged out C.J. and Zack went on Poseidon's Fury.  Then we went over to Universal and went on the Mummy (still one of my faves)

Image from Google

E.T. (always one of my faves)

Image from Google

Image from Google

And Men In Black...I sucked!!

Image from Google

Image from Google

By this time it was raining - because of course it was - so we camped out under cover to see the Beetlejuice show.  

It looked like it would have been a good show... from the 7 minutes we were able to see.  

:

Beetlejuice Show


When the show began it was thundering, wicked lightning, and pouring.  Then suddenly, 7 minutes into the show, they cancelled it due to "inclement weather."  Even though by this time the thunder and lightning had stopped and the rain had slowed to a drizzle????  

Hmm.

So we saw Shrek and called it a night.  

C.J. could hardly control his excitement that decorating for Halloween Horror Nights has begun.

Starting School

So today my beloved Valley Christian started their school year - without me.  Boo hoo.

I spent time today on Facebook looking at parents posting back to school pictures of their kids.  Kids that I have loved and miss so badly.  I spent time today in prayer for my former co-workers and friends.  That they would experience a blessed and productive school year.  

The rest of my time today was spent trying to get my own son registered to begin school on Monday and, I gotta say, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. The hold-up is that it appears his school records have just disappeared.  

He went to one school for 1st-8th grade and then home school last year.  I don't remember Alpha Omega (home school) asking for his records to be transferred nor does Valley Christian have record of a transfer request.  But they also don't have it!   I called Alpha Omega just in case...and, no surprise, they do not have it.  

Grrr...I am waiting for a call back to see how we should proceed.  His immunization record is being faxed by his doctor so that is taken care of BUT once it arrives I have to take it to the health department and have it switched to a form valid for the state of Florida!!! The earliest I can do that is Friday...and they WILL NOT even let him register for classes without it.  

So that is where we are. It looks like my son will miss his first day of school.  Not great.   

Four Days of Disney: Day One

Back in the early 2000's, when we were living in Palm Coast, we were Disney fanatics.  We had annual passes for 5 years in a row and, while it was expensive, I used my tax returns each year to buy them because it provided us with some great family moments and memories so it was worth the expense.

Once we moved here, I had to decide whether I wanted to take the plunge and buy annual passes for Zack and me.  After much debate, we decided to go with the Florida resident 4 day fun pass.  This will give us the opportunity to visit all 4 parks - 1 park each month.  

Yesterday was our day at Animal Kingdom. Chris and C.J. joined us. The first two pictures I took turned out like this:

Could have been a great picture

And I was so worried something was wrong with my camera. But then I realized the lens was fogged over - like glasses when they are moved from a cool environment into a warm one...yeah it was hot out! 


 This is my least favorite of the Disney Parks and even when we had our annual passes we would rarely go here.  If we did, we would usually only spend a half day here and then head to the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon and evening.  But there were 4 things that I wanted to do here...Kilimanjaro Safari, Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur, and Expedition Everest. Well...I didn't really want to do Expedition Everest as much as C.J. and Zack wanted me to go on it.  So I did.  

Kilimanjaro Safari was the first thing we did - and also our longest wait of the day at about 45 minutes.  Zack was so funny as he instructed me to take a picture of every animal we passed.  If I dared to put my camera down he'd say, "mom, don't you want to get a picture of this?" or  "You have to get a picture of this" or something similar.  

So here are the pictures of every single animal we saw on the safari. Including the hippos - which you can't even see!

The hippos you can barely see

A baby giraffe with it's mama

I don't know how they hold up those horns

Ivory tusks

See the hand?  Telling me to "take the picture, mom"

Flamingos - mostly still white. It takes up to 2 years to turn pink

Lion sleeping - which they do about 20 hours a day

Zack said these horns looked like lightning rods

After the safari we "raaaaaaced" our way over to Expedition Everest.  Zack could not even stop for a wanted photo. I had to take it while we were walking and he turned his face briefly to look at me.  Yes, for some reason we were in quite the rush. 

No time for a picture - we might get to Expedition Everest 1 minute later

After that was over - and, thankfully, the line was pretty quick so I didn't have time to really think about what I was doing - we headed over to do Dinosaur.  

WOW - it brought back a lot of memories!  After that we were able to use fast passes for primeval whirl.  Then we grabbed some lunch at an overpriced restaurant, saw A Bug's Life, and headed home because it was, of course, raining.  

Our plan is go to Magic Kingdom next month, EPCOT in October, and Disney Studios around Christmastime to see the lights.  

Shamu Show

Yesterday afternoon, on a whim, I decided to walk over to Sea World for the sole purpose of seeing the Shamu show.  

Before the show starts, the barrier between pools is open so the whales have free reign to swim wherever they want.  There were six of the altogether.

Four of them were doing this unusual and unprompted thing where two of the would float on their back while the other two looked as if they were supporting them with their nose.  Every so often the one floating on their back would roll off so the other one could come up for air and then they would go right back.  It was cool to watch. 

The show started at 2:00 and it did not disappoint.

I wish I could put my videos on here but apparently they are too long so I'll add links instead.

On my way out I passed the sea lions and -oh my- were they being loud! And playful.

Except this little guy who was napping with his face in the sun

I also passed the dolphin stadium just as the show was starting so I decided to stay for that.  It was okay - the dolphins were only in the first and last segments of the show. Other than that, there was a lot of acrobatics involved.  

I LOVE DOLPHINS!!!

The acrobatic part - kind of a yawn for me

And here is the link to the dolphin show.  

I never saw the movie Blackfish but I will say it was amazing watching these animals respond to their trainers. The bond was evident and while the whales were rewarded with food, one could see the love and trust between them and the trainers and I sensed a desire to please them.  The animals themselves appeared happy...after all...this is their life...it's really all they know.  There is no way they would survive in the wild.  

I will be going back again - and soon - to see it again.